


A Flower Born to Blush

by Some_Impossible_Fairytale



Category: The Originals (TV), The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Regency, Caroline as Emma Woodhouse, Emma AU!, F/M, Klaus as George Knightley, References to Jane Austen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-11
Updated: 2017-03-11
Packaged: 2018-10-02 13:19:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,083
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10219211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Some_Impossible_Fairytale/pseuds/Some_Impossible_Fairytale
Summary: "Have I no chance of succeeding? My dearest Caroline. For that is what you always have been and what you always will be."





	

**Author's Note:**

> Emma inspired Regency AU! I. Can’t. Stop. Writing. Klaroline. I know I still have the Mythology AU! To work on, which is underway, but Drama Channel keeps running adverts for their Jane Austen Sundays and there’s only so many times I could listen to my favourite line from Emma before I caved. 
> 
> A scene after the marriage and settling of our favourite OTP at Hartfield. 
> 
> In short, I blame Jonny Lee Miller for this. Attractive well spoken gentlemen are a problem I need more of.

__

_Have I no chance of succeeding? My dearest Caroline. For that is what you always have been and what you always will be._

 

The world had stopped at such words. All of sudden nothing, not her duty to Mama or Camille had mattered. All Caroline could think of was the fact that her heart, which had resided with Niklaus Mikaelson for some time now, perhaps forever and Mr. Mikaelson’s heart seemed to be speaking the same words together.

 

Could this be true? The words themselves tumbled forth from her lips before she could centre herself. He had loved her all this time. Had known since Box Hill. How ironic it was that of all the people she had known, rather than Mr. Tyler Lockwood, it had been Klaus Mikaelson to know the workings of her heart before she had even discovered them herself. And yet. And yet she could not imagine a world without him in it, there was barely a memory she possessed without him there. And surely if he wsa to marry Camille, rather than herself, he would take the sun from her life?

 

 

It seemed like an age since that fateful afternoon when Miss Caroline Forbes had discovered that her next door neighbour and old friend did not in fact wish to marry Miss Camille O'Connell as she had resigned herself to hearing but she herself instead. 

 

In reality it had only been a few short months and only three weeks since _she_  had become Mrs Mikaelson and thereby entitled to select the guests for Box Hill. How strange this life was! She had envied the supposed Mrs Mikaelson in between the heartbeats it had taken Klaus to announce his singular faith in judgement and then proclaim that the lady of which he spoke was not yet in being. 

 

He seemed born to drive her to distraction. But then the effect appeared reciprocal Caroline thought with a fond smile. They had returned from the seaside last week to truly begin their married life at Hartfield as Klaus had promised. 

 

_You know I love you and I always will but we can never marry! That's all.... my mother has spent the whole of my life terrified that I would be taken away from Hartfield! She could not bear it and I will not do it!_

 

_My heart is here and so if my heart is here then where does it matter where I live?_

 

His belongings had arrived from Donwell during their absence and he had spent the first few days having them resituated. Caroline in the meantime had regaled her beloved mother with all she had seen and done at her time away. 

 

Well. Caroline blushed and felt compelled to test her forehead against the cool pane. Not everything. Klaus was exceedingly attentive of everything he did, including their nighttime activities. 

 

It still felt so odd to call him by his given name of Niklaus. He much preferred Klaus though Caroline knew that he was called Nik by his siblings when he chanced to see them in town or Bath for the waters. She had called him it only once before in truth but now he was more eager to hear it fall from her lips, corrected her every time she slipped into the old nominative of Mr Mikaelson.

 

She truly would have been the fool everyone but Klaus seemed to think she was if she had assumed his lectures would cease after their union. He would not have been her Mr Mikaelson if he did not scold her on occasion. And she would not be his Caroline if she did not ignore him. Or bear it as no other woman would as he had so appraisingly put it. 

 

What a marriage proposal! But as he had said, if he loved her less he might be able to talk more and she would not be less loved by him for all the strawberries and assemblies in the world. Yet she knew how greatly she vexed him even now. Or more specifically her filial devotion to her mother. 

 

Caroline straightened, moving away from the window to look about the room. It was quite fantastical how the world could still look the same and yet be so far removed from all that was familiar. Her piano forte was exactly as she had left it, her embroidery in its bag by the chair. Yet there is a book of Milton that neither she nor Mrs Gilbert had added to her reading list on the other side of the seat where Klaus reclines after dinner. 

 

Everything is changed. She is changed. Gone is Miss Caroline Forbes of Hartfield and in her place Mrs Mikaelson of Donwell. For despite their present situation her mother will not live forever and Klaus had made it clear he expected to return to Donwell. 

 

She knows how she annoys him. It's purely unintentional but he had gently pointed out that that was always the case between them. 

 

'Are you alright my love?' Klaus speaks softly from the doorframe, somewhere he no longer lingers but only pauses before striding into the room and coming to stand behind her. Where there used to be a relatively improper space between them (the space they had always told themselves was agreeable between old friends, protective of each other as brother and sister were) now there is none between husband and wife. 

 

Klaus draws her gently into his arms, not caring that he's creasing her new muslin dress (he has such a fortune if she were to mention it he'd buy her five and twenty new ones as compensation) so that their faces are side by side. It is a tender embrace, cherished by Caroline. But Klaus sighs all the same. 

'Sweetheart...' he growls lowly, an endearment and chastisement all at once. She'd swear he's the only man she knows who can do such a thing. 

She's tense in his arms and he hates it. 

 

It's shock. Shock that after so long that they are now so tactile together. Kisses to hand have become kisses without restriction. They hold hands always so that Caroline has forgotten what it's like to have her left hand unengaged. As now, anywhere everywhere he holds her, shoulder, hand, waist his touch is there. 

 

It's maddening. It stokes thoughts in her of warmth and comfort certainly. She never feels alone and friendless. But it stoked a fire in her belly when she should be focusing on matters outside the marital bed. And then there's the matter of her mother. To have such thoughts, to be caught in such easy embraces by her mother is so unknown that Caroline cannot relax. Couples are affectionate but in a manner befitting public outings; they link arms or embrace tenderly. Klaus is one of the gentlest, if most guarded souls she has ever known and she has known him all her life. They had always been casual and affectionate together, he’d been the one to help her out of carriages and open doors for her, chased her round the gardens of Donwell and Hartfield in equal measure. But as a lover, as a husband he is unrestrained in his passion.

 

Their honeymoon to the seaside had been as to Paradise and they had slipped from oldest and dearest friends to the Mikaelsons rather than Mikaelson and Forbes as naturally as breathing. Yet here her roles are confusing. She has always been daughter first, then sister and friend. Now she must find place for wife within the hierarchy without unbalancing her other obligations.

She had never expected to be so truly beloved and important, so always first and always right in any man’s eyes as she was in her mother’s.

 

With Klaus she expected, however unbecoming such thoughts were, that she was more so.

 

That in itself is most vexing.

 So she is tense and Klaus upset. 

It is not ideal.

 

Perhaps they should move to Donwell. The traitorous thought waltzes through her mind before she can stop it and without thinking she recoils further from Klaus touch. 

 

'Do you regret our marriage Caroline? Did you think that if I had married Camille we would be any less in each other's lives?' 

 

Caroline, naturally was affronted by the mere suggestion that she had married Klaus out of fear of losing him. While it was true that she had feared losing him, she had also made the decision to be a good and true friend and rather than meddling in others hearts support Klaus should he choose Camille. But now Camille had chosen Marcel Gerard instead and Klaus and Caroline had chosen one another.

The violently passionate reaction that this query produced was enough both to concern Klaus that things really were not well with his wife through some unknown upset, that she loved him most ardently and that he without doubt favoured Caroline’s open temperament to Camille’s quiet reserve.

“How can you even ask me that Niklaus?”

She has used his full name but once in 17 years. He will never tire of it hearing it from her perfect, pretty mouth until his last day. It is on the tip of his tongue to reply flippantly ‘Easily’ but he thinks better of it. He had vowed to have and to hold Caroline and he knows full well he will not be able to do that with a locked door between them.

Nonsensical girl! How in heaven she holds his heart with such readiness and grace he will never comprehend. But God help him she does and only she ever will.

“A women does not marry a man merely because she is asked or because he is attached to her and can write a tolerable letter. You were the one who spoke of our lives before Tyler Lockwood as being exposed to plunder. We both took the step necessary to secure that which we cannot do without.”

Caroline smiles, as if he is the one being problematic here. They ought not to revel in it so thinks Klaus resignedly as Caroline steps closer once more, no longer bashful, the outside world forgotten. She cups his face between her elegant fingers, the gold of her wedding ring warm against his cheek. “You cannot be removed from my heart remember?” she bends closer and Klaus’ eyes close against his will, waiting for the brush of her mouth “Nonsensical man” she teases

“I have heard one call anyone a tumour as beautifully as you sweetheart”

Most other women – such as Camille, or Mrs Gerard as she now stands – would slap him for such impudence. But not his Caroline. She knows what he is and bears it as no other women would have. Certainly he cannot imagine Tatia ever bearing him with such loving humour.

This is what he had wanted, what he had waited for. Caroline warm and eager in his arms once more. Duty and reputation put aside for each other. Pausing in his attention Klaus is able to speak so that only Caroline can hear him. And thankfully, the grounds are open and deserted so that no-one can observe their closeness and upset Caroline further.

“Each beat of my heart belongs to you. All the rest I can live with provided that you are never out of the sunshine.”

Caroline could not keep the smile off her face at his words. All these years she had never known that his heart was that of a poet’s. She must remember to tell him so, the next time he was not scolding her and she was being ‘nonsensical’ as he so loved to call her.

It was enough to be a pet name, she thought with a laugh, thinking of Her Royal Highness the Princess Charlotte of Wales and her husband Prince Leopold, whom the papers reported the Princess called him ‘Denouement’ for all his gentle reprimanding of her.

Klaus’ eyebrows raised in fond askance as they always did when he found her to be particularly amusing but Caroline could only shake her head and kiss him.

“And as long as you can maintain the occasional walk to Donwell for your constitution” she teased, ducking her head coquettishly.

It was Klaus’ turn to laugh, and he too stole a kiss along with a little of her reserve at the fire in his embraces “Did I not say, my love how everything serves to prove more and more the beauty and sincerity in all our dealings with each other?”

**Author's Note:**

> Princess Charlotte was the only child of George IV of England, who tragically died aged just 21 in childbirth. The child, a boy did not survive either and both are buried in a lavish tomb at Windsor. She was seen as the hope for England [her family kinda sucked] , and even beggars wore black arm bands in the streets. ‘It was as if every household in England had lost a favourite child’. She had married Prince Leopold in 1816 and he always used to say to her whenever she got a little excitable ‘Denoument, ma cherie’ [Gently, my love] to the point that as Caroline states, the Princess actually called him that as a pet name.  
> I hope you’ve enjoyed this – it’s a lot more formal than I normally write but I was trying to imitate the speech etcetera that we see in ‘Emma’ and Jane Austen’s other fantastic works.  
> Emma was published in 1815 but I altered the timeline just a little. It’s actually dedicated to George IV himself, who Austen loathed because of his situation with his wife Queen Caroline [he hated her, tried to get a divorce, put her on trial, locked her out of the coronation]. Jane was ‘given the liberty’ to dedicate it to the Prince Regent and essentially went ‘right stuff it’ – she probably wondered if he’d actually understand all her jibes about the route that England was taking [under his direction]
> 
> And this author’s note turned into a mini history lesson…Sorry!! I just really like Princess Charlotte of Wales. And Emma. If she hadn’t died, we would never have had Queen Victoria. Whose another favourite.  
> Anyway, thank you for reading. Hope you enjoyed!


End file.
